Maguindanao massacre suspect falls in Pasay — report

A suspect in the Nov. 23, 2009 carnage in Maguindanao province was arrested in Pasay City, Metro Manila, a radio report said Sunday. Radio dzBB said that military intelligence operatives and Pasay City policemen served an arrest warrant to a certain Mochtar Daud. The suspect is allegedly a driver of the Ampatuan clan, whose members are powerful warlords in the southern Philippine province and the prime suspects in the massacre where 57 people were killed. The victims include members of the rival Mangudadatu clan, their supporters, and about 32 journalists.
Clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr. and son, former Datu Unsay town Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. were tagged as the mastermind and principal suspects in the killings. Daud was watching a motorcycle race along Macapagal Avenue when Armed Forces of the Philippines' intelligence operatives and policemen arrested him. The report said Daud denied involvement in the massacre and that he had been in hiding because he feared the Ampatuans would kill him for leaving them. Trials are now ongoing for some of the accused in the massacre. Members of the Ampatuan family and more than a hundred other suspects were implicated in the multiple-murder trial presided by Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes. The bloodbath went down in Philippine history as the worst election-related killings. — With Sophia Dedace/VS, GMANews.TV